418 
THE PEAR. 
tree to new growth. It is in accordance with this, that man* 
persons have remarked, that those pear trees growing in com 
mon meadow land, were free from blight in seasons when those 
in the rich garden soils were continually suffering from it. 
The first point then should be to secure a rich but dry, well 
drained soil. Cold aspects and soils should be avoided, as likely 
to retard the growth and ripening of the wood. 
The second is to reject, in blighted districts, such varieties as 
have the habit of making wood late, and choosing rather those 
of early habit, which ripen the wood fully before autumn. 
Severe summer pruning, should it be followed by an early 
winter, is likely to induce blight, and should therefore be avoid- 
ed. Indeed, we think the pear should always be pruned in 
winter or early spring.* 
As a remedy for blight actually existing in a tree, we know 
of no other but that of freely cutting out the diseased branches, 
at the earliest moment after it appears. The amputation should 
be continued as far down as the least sign of discoloration and 
consequent poisoning is perceptible, and it should not be neg- 
lected a single day after it manifests itself. A still better re- 
medy, when we are led to suspect, during the winter, that it is 
likely to break out in the ensuing summer, is that of carefully 
looking over the trees before the buds swell, and cutting out all 
branches that show the discoloured or soft sappy spots of bark 
that are the first symptoms of the disease. 
Finally, as a preventive, when it is evident, from the nature 
of the season and soil, that a late autumnal growth will take 
place, we recommend laying bare the roots of the trees for two 
or three weeks. Root pruning will always check any tendency 
to over-luxuriance in particular sorts, or in young bearing trees, 
and is therefore a valuable assistance when the disease is feared. 
And the use of lime in strong soils, as a fertilizer, instead of 
manure, is worthy of extensive trial, because lime has a tend- 
ency to throw all fruit trees into the production of short-jointed 
fruit-spurs, instead of the luxuriant woody shoots induced by 
animal manure. 
In gardens, where, from the natural dampness of the soil or 
locality, it is nearly impossible to escape blight, we recommend 
that mode of dwarfing the growth of the trees — conical stan- 
dards, or quenouilles , described in the section on pruning. This 
mode can 'scarcely fail to secure a good crop in any soil or cli- 
mate where the pear tree will flourish. 
* The only severe case of blight in the gardens here, during the sum- 
mer of 1844, was in the head of a Gilogil pear — a very hardy sort, which 
had never before suffered. The previous midsummer it had been severely 
pruned, and headed back, which threw it into late growth. The next 
season nearly the whole remaining part of the tree died with the frozen, 
sap blight. 
